(Historic) Jerry Coleman
Loren Coleman's Obituary for his brother
Jerry D. Coleman, on the Sunday evening before Labor Day, September 1, 2024, went out to his patio to enjoy the evening air, look at the trees behind his Harvard, Illinois home, and have a smoke.
Neighbors saw him there after supper and the next morning, September 2, 2024. Curious, they checked on why he had not moved. About 10 am, they discovered he had passed away, of what the authorities said was a heart attack.
Born in Decatur, Illinois, Jerry was 73, and his death was a surprise. He had been defeating his health issues of late. A dozen years ago, his doctors were discussing two separate kinds of throat cancer overtaking his body. He’d struggled with medical advice, and continued smoking, while refusing recommendations to carry around an oxygen tank. Despite no longer driving, he felt good enough to live alone.
Jerry Dale Coleman was the author of two books, Strange Highways: A Guidebook to American Mysteries and More Strange Highways, thanks to publisher Troy Taylor. An original assortment of true unexplained stories from hauntings to monster birds, Jerry’s books revealed cases, hoaxes, critical analysis, and introduced exclusive tales of phenomenon. His first book was published on Halloween in 2003 from Whitechapel Press. His second book was released in January 2006.
Jerry became an investigator of strange phenomenon and bizarre events in the 1970s, and contributed to numerous books in the 1970s and 1980s. He wrote several newspaper articles, was a guest of several radio broadcasts, traveled the continental United States, from coast to coast, as well as to Hawaii, Mexico, Canada, Europe, and the Bahamas Islands, establishing his unique style while examining the unexplained. His first article was published in the December 1983 issue of Fate Magazine. He then created and produced the earliest of its kind in collector cards, Myth or Real Cards, in 1994.
First and foremost, Jerry D. Coleman will always be known for his in-depth investigative work on the 1977 Lawndale, Illinois, Thunderbird case.
Jerry D. Coleman was the first researcher to talk to Ruth and Marlon Lowe about the Thunderbird abduction. The description he obtained from the eyewitnesses was exacting and has been repeated often in the cryptozoological literature.
Jerry, formerly of Decatur, Illinois, was able to interview Marlon, Ruth and Jake Lowe on two occasions in 1977, within hours of the incident. Loren returned in 1979, with Jerry, to re-interview the Lowes. Due to Jerry’s involvement, he was quoted often by the media, in newspapers and in reality television programs.
While Jerry was living in Tennessee, he undertook an in-depth examination of the Janice Carter and Mary Green reports of generations of interactions with Bigfoot. Jerry decided to tackle this by doing background research and traveling to the site. His field notes were raw, insightful, and topnotch. He introduced his summary of the subject by noting, in part:
The authors of 50 Years with Bigfoot, Mary Green and Janice Carter Coy will tell you Bigfoot has existed on this farm for 50 years and still does! The allegedly true story encompasses practically everything ever testified to or theorized about Bigfoot: What they eat, how they kill, how they have sex, Bigfoot births, Bigfoot burial, Bigfoot at play, Bigfoot raping a human female, Bigfoot masturbating, Bigfoot speech, and of course a complete head to toe description of Bigfoot. However what is absent from this comprehensive view of the Bigfoot clan is solid, public documentation and consistency in the story. Most questionable of all is after 50 years of Bigfoot’s close encounters Coy, neighbors or invited (or uninvited) investigators have yet to obtain one single clear photograph of this infestation.
Jerry Dale Coleman was born in Decatur, Illinois, at the Macon County Hospital, on October 3, 1951, at a whopping 11 pounds, 14 and a half ounces; his mother called Jerry a phenomena! In his life as the father of four (he lost his son Jerry Denton to SIDS), JDC tended to agree with his mother’s first impression. Jerry loved his kids (Stephanie, Tara & Nick) and being a dad.
An experienced outdoorsman and accomplished guide, his commonsense approach to the world around him served him well. He took pride in wearing no labels from organized groups, thus giving him the true freedom to speak his mind.
When Jerry wrote his books’ “About the Author,” he summarized how he wanted to be remembered. Jerry had worked as a paramedic in Illinois, installed alarm systems in California, and ran a trucking company in Tennessee. But in overviewing his life, he talked about the numerous articles he’d written on the “unexplained” and how he’d traveled “all over the country, as well as [to] South America and Europe, in a quest for the unknown.” Jerry ended this summary by mentioning, while in Tennessee, he did work “as a counselor for troubled teens.”
Jerry often would say he received his education “the hard knocks way,” because he never attended college. He became known as a candid, impartial, and pleasant interviewer, and a serious veteran monster hunter.
Jerry’s sense of humor was alive to the end. He told me in 2010 that he had finally been “admitted to a university,” knowing this day would come.
I asked him what he meant, and he said that the University of Tennessee had accepted his final remains in the forensic Body Farm at Knoxville. This was the same spot that had taken Grover Krantz’s body (1931-2002) too.
